Batching for a week

Karyn's been away this week, taking her mother home. So Matt and I have had the place to ourselves. Not that we've got up to much, you understand.

On Sunday night we went to see the new Star Trek movie. We both thought it was great. We were going to have dinner at the sleazy bar next to where Matt works, but he had filled up with one of those disgustingly large buckets of popcorn, and so didn't feel like eating.

The pool company came and installed the new spa cover one day, but when we decided to celebrate with a spa that night, we found that they turned off the spa heater, so it was too cold. So I turned it back on and cranked the thermostat up.

The next night we got in, and it was too hot. We now know what a cooking lobster feels like. I now know that 41 degrees is about 3 degrees too much. We could only stand it for about 15 minutes.

Unfortunately the spa cover doesn't fit properly, so they'll have to make another one. Karyn says they took quite a while measuring it up, so someone has slipped up big. On the side nearest the house it looks quite neat, but from the side and back you can see how it doesn't cover properly. Fortunately we haven't paid for it yet.

It looks good from the front...

But really untidy from the side.

When I rang the guy who installed it, he said he "thought there might be a small problem", but "he wasn't sure".

Dinner each night was whatever we felt like. Reheated frozen dinners featured a lot. We went out to Wests Rugby Club one night and had a pretty good nosh up. Matt had a Caesar Salad with freshly cooked king prawns, and I had the roast pork buffet. It's interesting that now Matt's 18 and can drink anything he likes from beer to spirits, he'd still rather just have a Coke. He doesn't seem to have inherited his mother's genes.

He went out with some mates after work on Friday night. I bet my parents were glad we didn't have mobile phone technology in my youth, because they never had to respond to SMSs at 2:00AM asking if we could sleep over somewhere.

Karyn came home on Saturday with a 6 hour drive. I noticed that when she got home she ignored the large stack of laundry that needed ironing. But I was generous and let her have the evening off. She can start on it tomorrow.

Today we finished the week off with a lunch with our friends Peter, Dot, and May at the Goulburn Workers' Club, about an hour's drive north of Canberra. This is a monthly event/therapy session where we get to compare horror stories about bringing up teenagers.

Peter and Andy

May, Karyn, and Dot

The mother-in-law has left the building

Karyn has taken her mum back to Port Stephens, leaving Matt and I to look after ourselves. She'll only be away for a week, so there shouldn't be too much mess and dirty washing for her when she gets back.

It's been a horrible weekend. Matt used up all our download allowance (I thought 25GB would be enough!) so we were slowed to 64k/sec, down from about 8MB/sec. It's hard to believe that once upon a time 64K would have been fast. It surprised me just how much I expect the Internet to be there whenever I want. Karyn's also taken her netbook with her, so we've lost our family-room internet device. Matt, at least, always has his iPhone in one hand, so he's never out of touch.

The situation has prompted me to change ISPs. Bigpond is dropping its member webpages, so I'll have nowhere to store my genealogy web pages. I'll probably shift to TPG as they have the best deal; I can get a greater download for less price. And they still have member homepages.

Matt and I had a spa tonight. It was about 6 degrees outside, so a bit warmer than its been in the past week, but still a big shock when you get out of the warm water. When we were in there I had a horrible thought: what if Matt closed the door and it locked automatically? Fortunately he hadn't or we'd be blocks of ice by now.

Bad news

Bad news.

My mother-in-law's leg is too sore and she will have to stay longer.

I'll leave it to you to work out the bad news part.

A poor way to end a day

Today wasn't as good as we hoped it would be. We took a trip to Bega.

Why go to a little hamlet on the far South Coast of NSW? Because of its racecourse. Our horse was running there, so we felt obliged to make the 3 hour trip. That's 3 hours each way. In a car for 6 hours. Locked in car with my mother-in-law. But of course I'm only joking, she's not too bad.

We had to leave at around 8am so that we could get there early enough to get a table in the Members area. So I had to get up at around 6:30 so I could spend half an hour on the treadmill first.

We picked up Penny, and after about 2 hours we stopped for coffee at Maccas in Cooma, where it was foggy and the temperature was a pleasant 6 degrees. By the time we got down to sea-level, the temperature had climbed to a mild 14 degrees and the sun was out.

Karyn went to say hello to Diamond Jay, and got bitten again. It happens every time. I guess one day she'll learn to stay away from the part with teeth.

It was a great race meeting at the Sapphire Coast track. Unfortuntely we came 6th. The jockey blamed the horse for not performing, but we prefer to blame him. So no trophy this time.

To make the day worse, Karyn put on a trifecta bet (picking first, second, and third) but the girl at the TAB put it on wrong. When Karyn realised this, she broke the cardinal rule of betting, and had the bet changed. If she'd left it alone, we'd have walked away with a 490:1 payout. But she broke the rule of never changing a mistaken bet, so we walked away with nothing.

So, back in the car for another 3 hour drive. With the mother-in-law next to me all the way. I had to drive, because the girls had consumed at least a bottle each.

By the time we reached Cooma we felt like a nice steak dinner, so we stopped off at the local RSL, and as luck would have it, the restaurant didn't open for another half an hour. We didn't feel like waiting, so back to McDonalds we went.

The girls pigged out on fat-burgers, while I had a wrap from their healthy-choice menu. Strange, but this menu has shrinked to almost nothing these days.

On the way back to the car, Fay tripped over and hurt herself. I'm sure the bottle of wine had nothing to do with it. She already had an injured ankle, so now she has an injured wrist and hip go with it. When we got home she realised the disadvange of our split-level home: stairs. It took ages for her to get upstairs and into bed.

Boy am I not looking forward to the morning when she tries to get up and finds out that her muscles have locked-up. Maybe I can go out somewhere before she wakes up.

I got into the spa for a relaxing float-around. And, of course, it started to rain. You know, I find it hard to relax in the spa when it's raining on my head.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Art Show time

It's strange that when I'm doing lots I don't seem to blog much. Now it's been so long that I can hardly remember all the things that I've done over the past few weeks.

It's certainly been a busy day today, and I've just been relaxing in the spa for an hour or so. Everybody has gone to bed and Matthew's out sampling some of the bars around town now that he's 18 and it's all legal. He left his car at home, so that's one thing I don't have to worry about. Donna, who lives a few doors up the street, was in an accident during the week and wrote off her car. She came to dinner tonight on crutches; fortunately a banged-up ankle is her only injury.

Karyn's friend Jessica came down for the weekend (she couldn't make it for Matthew's birthday). She and I went to the Radford College Art Show today, and we really enjoyed the paintings. I'm on the organising committee, helping out with the IT-related tasks like the art catalog and sales recording system. There were so many great paintings that next year I need to agree a budget with Karyn and buy something on the spot if I like it. This year I dithered so much on opening night that all the good ones got bought within a few minutes.

Some fabulous student art. It's amazing what some people can do with an HB pencil.

I'm glad I got out of the job of setting up the display stands. I did it last year and it took us until midnight.

We had great art that sold well. When one artist found that all his paintings sold on the first day, he turned up with 3 more in his car for us to sell.

Once the show started we could relax a bit. No disasters (yet).

I've worked out a better method for printing off the artist sales statements, so I'll have to be there at the end for a few hours to upgrade the system and install the new reports before all the artists turn up for their money.

The spa's back in action

Karyn's been away this weekend, so I had a good chance to have a relax.

Fortunately the spa pump has been replaced, so I could kick back surrounded by bubbles and enjoy the night sky.

I wonder if the people I met in Mumbai last year could comprehend the world outside India.

Big Win at Bega

On Sunday we drove to Bega on the southern coast of NSW to see our new horse "Diamond Jay"  race.

Whilst being optimistic about her, we weren't sure about her real competitiveness.  In her last race, despite coming 3rd, she was also 11 lengths behind the leader.  You always hope that there was a reason for this, not just a lack of speed.

Anyway, we made the 3 hour drive there with some friends, stopping at Cooma on the way for coffee and then a lookout over the Bega valley.

Here's the view from the lookout.

Canberra is in the Southern Highlands of NSW, so we're about 600m above sea level.  So, being Autumn, it was about 8 degrees C.   As we descended to sea level, the temperature rose to about 21 degrees, so we had a relatively warm day ahead, windy though it was.

Karyn gave her usual pep-talk to the horse.  He must be getting used to her now.  Last time he bit her 3 times.

And of course the best horse won on the day....

Here's Penny and Karyn holding the trophy in the Committee Room.  There, we watched the race replay about a dozen times.

Notice how tightly Penny is holding the trophy.  She kept it hugged to her chest for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  We're wondering if we'll ever see it again.

Anzac Day Dawn Service

For the first time, I went to the Anzac Day dawn service here in Canberra.

Although it's a relatively simple memorial service, each year the attendance grows. I think that this morning there was a crowd of 20,000 people standing there in the cold and dark pre-dawn service. That's not bad for a small city.

I arranged to go with Di, my neighbour 2-doors up the street. To be there on time we had to leave by 4:15am. Even the dogs didn't stir. It poured with rain off and on all night, with gale-force winds. We considered cancelling, but at 4am there was only a light drizzle, so we decided to go.

We were able to park in a nearby suburb and walk to the War Memorial. All the seating was taken so we stood just in front of the dais. It was strangely quiet given the number of people there, with most noise coming from the flagpoles and the cockatoos.

The service was short but good. And best of all the rain held off until 60 seconds after the service finished.

Despite the rain, we availed ourselves of the free coffee and Anzac biscuits, mainly to show appreciation to the volunteers who were manning the tables in the rain and wind.

We then walked through the War Memorial's gallery of names on the Roll of Honour, and then through the Hall of Remembrance.

By the time we got out it was about 6:30am and we could see that we were in for a cold, windy day.

We then went for breakfast in Civic. I called Karyn to invite her to breakfast, but she was still in bed and not in the mood. It was before 10am after all.

Standing in front of the stage.

Not enough light for a good shot.

The tradition of putting poppies in the Wall.

A bleak morning afterwards.  The seating you can see arranged extends right around the courtyard.  We were standing right where the truck now is.

 

Me, rugged up for the cold.

Easter at Port Stephens

At Easter we visited Karyn's mother at Port Stephens.

It's about a 6hr drive from Canberra. What's amazing is what a difference a 6hr drive can make to the temperature. Here it's getting to be tracksuit weather, while up there you can only wear shorts and t-shirts.

It's funny how things change. In the past, most of the conflict/organisation revolved around who got to watch what on the TV. Now, it's whose got the laptop charger. We took two laptops but only one charger with us, so the big issue was who had to run on battery and who got to connect up and recharge while playing. I took a wireless keyboard we me so when it was my turn to use a laptop I could plug it in to the 50" TV and use it from across the room. Amazing how these things can just plug into one another and just work.

Matt and I took the chance to do some things that we don't usually do.

Like putt-putt.  (I won)

And practicing our driving.

One evening we also went bowling.  (I won there as well).

For lunch on Sunday we went to a seafood restaurant overlooking Nelson Bay marina.  The food was terrific.  The view was pretty good as well.

Karyn and me.

Here's a random photo at the marina.

At last I'm overweight

I had some good news today.

Now I'm officially overweight. "Why is this a cause of celebration?", I hear you ask.

The reason stems back to about September last year when Karyn bought a Wii Fit for Matt's Nintendo Wii. The Wii Fit has a Body Test mode where it weighs you as part of an overall fitness test. I was rather horrified to see that according to the BMI scale, I was in the Obese category. I consoled myself with the fact that muscle is heavier than fat and the Wii couldn't see my superb physique.

Well, 6 months later, I've now dropped into the Overweight category. All I had to do was lose 16kg.

I actually set myself a target of losing 20kg, so I've only got 4kg to go.

For those of you who are wondering how I did it, I'll tell you the secret:

EAT LESS, EXERCISE MORE

Balloon Flight

I had a wonderful day today.  Karyn bought me a balloon flight for Christmas, so it seemed a good idea to use it during the Canberra balloon festival.

The only downside was that we had to be down at the lake in front of Old Parliament House by 5:45AM.  It was still dark.   After signing the usual disclaimers that said it would be our own fault if we landed in the lake and drowned or hit powerlines and electrocuted ourselves, we helped inflate the balloon.

After laying out the balloon, two big fans were used to partially inflate the balloon while lying on its side.  They they turned on the gas burners that heated the air and caused the balloon to lift.

We had to get onboard quickly to stop it drifting away.  The ladder is for some old folks who couldn't climb in.  I had no problem. The basket held 12 people.

Surprisingly, as we lifted off and drifted West, there was no sound and no wind.  The basket didn't sway at all, so I reckon and even nervous fliers would be OK with it.  Until they had to land, of course ....

When I say no sound, I mean that there was no sound other then the occasional roar of the gas burners going off....

It gets quite hot when the flame is on,  which is why they recommended that we wear a cap to minimise the heat on our heads.  Maybe to stop your hair catching fire, I reckon.

There were panoramic views in all directions.  It was a pity that there were clouds above us - it would have been spectacular if the sun had been shining.  But then you can't been picky - last year Matt and I went to see the massed balloon launch and it was cancelled because there was no wind, and then the next day is was cancelled again because there was too much wind.

After a while we drifted out over the countryside.  It was unbelievable how dry everything was - once you moved away from the roads into the fields, all the grass disappeared until all you could see was bare dirt and dried up water holes.  I took the pictures below, they seem unreal, but that's exactly what the landscape looked like.  Lots of dead trees, a few greeen ones, and everything else a light brown clay.  It's probably been about 6 weeks since we had any substantial rain.

While our pilot kept us high in the sky, a few like to take a more risky path.  Apparently the daredevils like to try and skim over the water.  Some seem to like bouncing into other balloons.

Eventually we had to land.  The only problem were the power-lines that needed to be avoided. We landed in a paddock filled with thistles and waited until the ground crew arrived.  The pilot then  put some more head into the balloon so that the ground crew could walk us out of the thistles.

The reason for this is that we had to collapse and repack the balloon ready for tomorrow's flight and the thistles could cause problems.  We had thought that they moved us out of the thistles for the convenience of the passengers !

Unbelievable Weather

It's hard to believe that last weekend we were suffering from 40 degree temperatures. Now I'm wearing a warm tracksuit wondering why we don't have a log fire going. I think that its only about 9 degrees outside and the forecast is only for about 20 degrees tomorrow.

It's too cold to consider swimming - even though the pool is about 24 degrees, when the air temperature is too low I just don't want to contemplate a swim.

Also, as luck would have it, the spa heater is broken and the shop tells me it will have to be replaced. The cost will be around $1000, but there's no point in having a hot spa without one. Maybe we'll win the lottery this week.

Matthew cleaned his bedroom this morning. As you can see. I wonder if other 17 year olds are as bad as him at keeping their room clean.

Addendum

We counted 12 dirty coffee mugs in his room, 3 glasses, 2 water bottles, and 3 empty cans of Pepsi.

Scam Mail

I was surprised today to receive an actual piece of scam mail. Not the usual email sort that you get regularly, but an actual old-fashioned letter.


The usual wording though.

I was amazed that the scam business was so profitable that you could print customised colour letters, put them in good quality envelopes, and post them to the other side of the world.

This letter was sent all the way from Spain.

I guess that I should pass it on to the Federal Police.

A real pity. I could have done with the $4 million.

The Mystery of the Shrinking Crocs

Karyn almost ruined my Crocs the other day.

I left them strategically placed in the family room in just the right place for me to find the next time I needed them. She obviously disagreed with my positioning and put them outside.

The next day when I tried to put them on, I found that they were too tight. I reckoned that because they'd been sitting in the sun for the morning they must have shrunk. Believe me, the hot summer sun in Canberra can be pretty fierce.

I was devastated. They'd cost me around $50.

I googled "crocs" and "shrunk" and found lots of cases where people's crocs had shrunk when exposed to heat; even those just left in hot cars. There were stories about how people had contacted the manufacturer who refused to help. The common estimate was that they shrink 2 sizes. There were also a few suggestions on how to stretch them back again.

So, throwing caution to the winds, I put them in a hot clothes drier for 10 minutes and then put them on my feet which were wearing 2 pairs of socks. I walked around for a few minutes, and to my surprise they were wearable again, maybe even larger than before. It seems that heat makes them, what would be the word - "malleable"?

Hooray!


Now all I have to do is work out how to fix my Crocs thongs that have also shrunk and because the front is curled upwards, they look like they are designed for pixies to wear.

New Year motivation

I've been a bit motivated in the past few weeks to fix the steps to the spa.

The existing steps had reached the stage of actually rotting.  It all seemed to happen pretty quickly.  When I looked at them underneath I realised that there was a lot of raw timber underneath that general dirt had built up against over the years.  Being untreated pine didn't help either.

Anyway, two full days work resulted in some new steps.   It was a lot harder than I thought because the ground around the spa isn't level, so I had to make the steps correspondingly uneven so that they'd sit straight on the concrete.

The real problem was that every day was very hot, around 32 degrees C.  And every time I lifted my head this is what I saw.

At least the steps work.  Here are two votes of confidence.

New Year's Eve & New Year's Day

For NYE Karyn, her mother, and I went to the restaurant where Matthew works.

No chance of getting served by him though.   Whenever we go there he stays as far away from us as possible.  Generally he works behind the bar, making up drinks, making coffees, and organising the bills.

This year the restaurant had a 4-course dinner menu.  And of course we ate too much.  I went for a walk after the first 3 courses to get some fresh air and help the food go down.   Karyn and her mother stayed behind and made sure that the wine had no chance of evaporating.

We went home before midnight because Karyn's mother was yawning so much that she couldn't talk.  In hindsight, we should have stayed longer.

Matthew arranged to get a lift home, which was great, I thought.  Until I realised that Matthew didn't have any keys with him so I would have to stay up anyway and let him in.  I had to play Farcry for hours just to stay awake.

He finally got home at about 2:15AM.  He then decided that he was hungry and so made a meal out of the food that Karyn brought home from the restaurant because she couldn't eat it as she was too full.  It was actually her main course (course #3 of 4).  I think that he actually went to bed at around 4AM after playing some more World of Warcraft.

The next day we had a BBQ'd leg of lamb with roast vegetables.  It was a great meal, but my undoing was a bucket of pina colada mix that Karyn made that had half a bottle of white rum in it.   The mix was put into the freezer until it became slushy.  It was so easy to drink a person could lose track of how much that had actually drunk.  I think that we all had a sleep that afternoon except Matt who was doing something vital in World of Warcraft.

Here is a picture of Karyn wearing one of the silk tops that I got her in India.  It's the first time that she's worn one, so I guess she may have troubles coping with my superior sense of style and fashion.